A Taliban police member manages the crowd at the entrance of IOM’s reception center next to the Iranian border, on July 3, 2025, in Islam Qala, Afghanistan. (Elise Blanchard / Getty Images)
Published July 13, 2025
EDITORIAL: A Child Sold, A Nation Condemned – The Barbarism Behind “Waiting Until She’s Nine”
The recent case in Afghanistan’s Helmand province, where a 45‑year‑old man married a six‑year‑old girl, should send shockwaves across the civilized world. But what makes the story more grotesque is the response from the Taliban authorities: rather than condemning the act outright or prosecuting the man and the girl’s father for child exploitation, they instructed the man to “wait until she’s nine” before taking her into his home.
In what moral universe is this acceptable?
The girl’s father, according to reports, sold her for money—a brutal reminder of the intersection between poverty, patriarchy, and failed governance. And while the Taliban’s intervention may have prevented immediate cohabitation, their ruling is hardly a defense of the child. It is simply a delay of her trauma. The fact that the threshold for when a child can be treated as a wife is set at nine years old is a searing indictment of any claim that the Taliban’s rule offers protection, order, or morality.
Child marriage is not merely a cultural or religious issue—it is a fundamental human rights violation. At six years old, a child should be in school, not sold off like livestock. A man who believes it is his right to marry a girl younger than his granddaughter is not a husband—he is a predator. And a regime that enforces an age of consent based on medieval interpretations rather than universal human rights is not a government—it is a tyranny.
The Taliban have tried to rebrand themselves on the global stage. They speak of stability, order, and their ability to govern. But stability built on the bodies of girls is no peace—it’s oppression dressed in clerical robes.
International institutions, human rights organizations, and regional leaders must condemn this unequivocally. But condemnation alone is not enough. Aid should be conditional on basic protections for women and children. Sanctions must target those who facilitate child exploitation. And perhaps most urgently, voices from within the Muslim world must rise to reclaim their faith from those who twist it to justify horrors like this.
No society can claim to be civilized while debating whether nine years old is old enough to become a wife.
Resulting Effects:
Here are the resulting effects of the incident where a 45-year-old Afghan man married a 6-year-old girl, with the Taliban telling him to “wait until she’s 9”:
🔴 1. Public Outrage and Global Condemnation
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The case sparked widespread international condemnation, especially from human rights groups and activists, who see it as yet another example of Afghanistan’s regression under Taliban rule.
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Social media platforms and news outlets globally have amplified the incident, putting further scrutiny on the Taliban’s treatment of women and children.
⚠️ 2. Reaffirmation of Taliban’s Repressive Policies
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The Taliban’s statement did not criminalize child marriage—it only postponed the consummation.
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This sends a chilling signal that child marriage remains permissible, just delayed. Their intervention was procedural, not moral.
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It further exposed the Taliban’s attempt to sanitize their image while still enforcing hardline interpretations of Sharia law.
📉 3. Damage to Taliban’s International Credibility
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Efforts by the Taliban to gain international recognition or unfreeze foreign aid continue to be undermined by cases like this.
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Western governments and organizations will likely tighten conditions for aid, demanding stronger protections for women and children.
🧕 4. Increased Risk to Afghan Girls
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The lack of clear legal protection emboldens predatory behavior under the guise of tradition or religion.
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Families suffering from extreme poverty may be more likely to sell their daughters into early marriage as a survival strategy.
🔍 5. Renewed Focus on Human Rights Violations
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This case has reignited calls for UN intervention, monitoring, and sanctions.
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NGOs are now demanding specific clauses in any international engagement with the Taliban that ensure the protection of minors and women’s rights.
🗣️ 6. Calls for Reform in Islamic Legal Interpretation
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The case has sparked debates within the Islamic world about interpretations of marriageable age and religious doctrine.
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Scholars and reformists are pushing for reinterpretation of texts that have been historically used to justify child marriage.
🇦🇫 7. Afghan Civil Society Under Pressure
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Domestic voices—women’s rights activists, journalists, and former officials—are silenced or in hiding under Taliban rule, limiting internal resistance.
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However, the case has created underground awareness and quiet defiance among Afghan families who oppose such practices.
Bottom Line: A Distorted Tradition or Dangerous Misinterpretation?
The tragic case of a 45-year-old Afghan man marrying a 6-year-old girl under Taliban rule forces us to confront an uncomfortable reality: this is not a universal Muslim tradition—it is a dangerous cultural practice rooted in specific interpretations of Islamic history and law, often manipulated by patriarchal societies to justify abuse.
Islam, as practiced across the world, is not monolithic. While some conservative groups refer to historical precedents to justify child marriage, many Muslim-majority countries—including Egypt, Tunisia, Morocco, Turkey, and Indonesia—have banned or strictly regulated the practice, recognizing it as harmful and inconsistent with the core Islamic values of justice, mercy, and protection of the vulnerable.
The issue, therefore, is not Islam itself, but how it is interpreted by theocratic regimes like the Taliban, who use selective readings of scripture to maintain control. In reality, nothing in the Quran mandates child marriage. The Prophet Muhammad’s life is often cited in this context, but many modern scholars argue that historical context and evolving standards of morality must inform current laws and practices.
This is not about religion—it’s about power, poverty, and patriarchy. Child marriage persists where girls are seen as property, not people. Where education is absent, and where regimes like the Taliban enforce archaic codes without accountability, girls pay the price.
The global Muslim community must not remain silent. It must lead the call to end child marriage in all its forms, reclaiming Islam from those who twist its teachings to justify exploitation. And the international community must support Afghan civil society—especially women and children—by refusing to normalize or excuse such abuse as “tradition.”
Child marriage is not a religious right. It is a human wrong. – CMT
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